Physics, Inertia & Art - Nora Patrich
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Newton's first law of motion states that "An object at
rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed
and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."
Objects tend to "keep on doing what they're doing."
From the above law which I learned in college in my physics
courses (I thought I wanted to be an engineer) I came to realize that inertia
as I saw it was simply a resistance to motion. A resistance to move.
For close to 10 years I had a happy relationship with two
Argentine painters (Nora Patrich & Juan Manuel Sánchez). They were a couple
where inertia was simply “to stay in motion”. I would call them late at night
with suggestions of possible collaboration. They never denied any of them and
we worked together with all sorts of “colaboraciones”. Our best was one where
the three of us and another photographer (also Argentine) Claudia Katz spent
close to a year taking pictures, sketching and painting one very beautiful
Argentine woman called Linda Lorenzo. The result was a big show on South
Granville called Nostalgia.
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| Bellavista, Buenos Aires - April 2016 |
After that, we kept at it even if our collaborations did not
see print or a gallery wall. The important task was mutual inspiration.
Some 7 or 8 years ago the Argentine artists, Patrich and
Sánchez separated and moved back to Buenos Aires.
It was then that I came to realize how inertia seemed to
affect my artistic life in Vancouver. It was an inertia where I could not move
and I hit walls when I advanced an inch or so.
Since they left I have been active taking my personal portraits, of family and friends and quite a few female nudes. I know I can never show them anywhere. Somehow our city has become more prudish in its still inertia.
To escape my artistic doldrums I visit Patrich and Sánchez (she with her new partner Roberto Baschetti in the Buenos Aires suburb of Bellavista, he in his downtown studio on Paraguay Street and Talcahuano. Of Sánchez here and here). When I am there I am met with smiles and the promise of projects which in some cases are stymied by the geographic distances. But some of our ideas might see the light of day soon.
The above is simply my excuse to place here photographs of
Nora Patrich in her studio in Bellavista.
I wonder where I can find that brand of enthusiasm in
Vancouver?
I remember many years ago when I attempted to sell Marlene Cohen (I
had been hired by her to take her portraits) some of my artsy Mexican
photographs. She opened a blind in her large plate glass window overlooking
beyond Wreck Beach in her house on Marine Drive leading to UBC and said, “Why
would I want to buy any of those when I can look at this every day?”
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| Roberto Baschetti & Nora Patrich |
